Capital Region Coalition to End Homelessness - Data and Statistics
Mirroring national trends, the current housing crisis and recession have contributed significantly to a rise in homelessness in the Capital Region. For many loss of individual income as result of reduced hours and/or eliminated jobs makes maintaining housing difficult. Households which never expected to rely on housing and social service supports are seeking financial assistance in order to remain in their home, increasing the strain on already limited resources. As a result, transition into housing for those who are already homeless or in emergency shelters takes longer and is even more complicated.
Many of the Capital Region’s Homeless population remain hidden from public view. They are single parents with children, youth who have aged out of the foster system, veterans who face challenges readjusting to civilian life, individuals who lost their housing due to layoffs or medical crises, victims of domestic violence seeking safety, rural families forced to double up with family and friends, and seniors who are unable to ends meet with the rise in medical costs increase or after losing their spouse.
In 2010, a record number of household, over 12,000, received services from homeless service providers. Thirty five percent of these households were families including nearly 9,000 children. The number of households in need in the Capital Region has grown at an alarming rate just over the past four years. Data from the Capital Region Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) indicates that the total number of households receiving homeless and housing related services increased 100% since 2007. The rise in the number of families and children served over the four years is particularly concerning. Family homelessness jumped from 1,523 in 2007 to 4,316 in October 2010, a 188% increase, with the number of children in families jumping from 3,090 to 8,981, a 194% increase. During this same time period, the number of two-parent families more than quintupled; 228 two-parent families received homeless services in 2007 while 1,116 in 2010.
This year alone, between January and October, approximately 7200 people were counted in the HMIS as having no place to sleep and seeking emergency shelter. This number, staggering as it is, underestimates the true number of people needing shelter because it does NOT include victims of domestic violence, persons who are doubled up or living in substandard housing, and persons who do not present to agencies for services.
CARES Inc., www.caresny.org, is the administrator of the Capital Region HMIS, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development mandated MIS, and has been tracking data through this source since 2004. HMIS data does not include victims of domestic violence, persons who are doubled up or living in substandard housing, and persons who do not present to agencies for services.